Citation

J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1929; 93(19): 1483-1484.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1929, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.1929.02710190055020

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A committee appointed by the board of trade is holding an inquiry into coal gas poisoning. Dr. T. H. O. Stevenson from the general register office said that the number of deaths ascribed to coal gas poisoning in England and Wales had increased from a yearly average of 217 during 1911-1920 to 1,224 in 1928. The increase had occurred chiefly since the war and chiefly in suicides, the number of which had grown from 175 in 1918 to 1,086 in 1928. Accidental deaths had increased at the same time from eighty-one to 183. This form of suicide had only recently come into vogue. In 1901 there were only seven such deaths, but by 1910 the number had grown to 126-- ninety-four males and thirty-two females. Nearly all the increase in suicides since the war had taken the form of coal...